Scott Summers was the first of two sons born to Major Christopher Summers, a test pilot for the U.S. Air Force, and his wife Katherine. Christopher was flying his family home from vacation when their plane was attacked by a spacecraft from the interstellar Shi'ar Empire. To save their lives, Katherine pushed Scott and his brother Alex out of the plane with the only available parachute. Scott suffered a head injury upon landing, thus forever preventing him from controlling his mutant power by himself.

With their parents presumed dead, the authorities separated the two boys. Alex was adopted, but Scott remained comatose in a hospital for a year. On recovering, he was placed in an orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska that was secretly controlled by his future enemy, the evil geneticist Mister Sinister.

As a teenager, Scott came into the foster care of Jack Winters, a mutant criminal known as the Jack O'Diamonds. After Scott began to suffer from severe headaches he was sent to a specialist who discovered that lenses made of ruby quartz corrected the problem. Soon after, Scott's mutant power first erupted from his eyes as an uncontrollable blast of optic force. The blast demolished a crane, causing it to drop its payload toward a terrified crowd. Scott saved lives by obliterating the object with another blast, but the bystanders believed that he had tried to kill them and rallied into an angry mob. Scott fled, escaping on a freight train.

Winters sought to use Scott's newfound talent in his crimes, and physically abused the young boy when he initially refused. However, Scott's display of power had attracted the attention of the mutant telepath Professor Charles Xavier, who teamed up with F.B.I. agent Fred Duncan in their mutual attempt to find Scott. Scott was rescued from Winters' clutches and was enlisted by Xavier as the first member of the X-Men, a team of young mutants who trained to use their powers in the fight for human/mutant equality.

As Cyclops, Scott became deputy leader of the X-Men. While he was a skilled tactician, his social skills were lacking. Scott had fallen in love with his teammate Jean Grey, but his reserved demeanor prevented him from expressing his feelings for her for years. When Xavier's other original recruits left the fold following an encounter with the sentient island-being Krakoa, Cyclops stayed on as deputy leader of the new team.

Shortly thereafter, the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force took Jean's place. When it committed suicide, Scott believed the love of his life had died and he left the X-Men. During his time away from the team, Scott met fishing boat captain Lee Forrester who helped him work through his grief. Scott eventually returned to the X-Men whereupon he met Madelyne Pryor, a woman who bore an uncanny resemblance to Jean. Unaware that Madelyne was a clone of Jean created by Sinister, Scott fell in love with Madelyne and they were soon married. Madelyne became pregnant and bore Scott a son named Nathan Christopher.

When the real Jean emerged from suspended animation, Scott abandoned his wife and son and rejoined the other original X-Men in establishing a new team, X-Factor. During a demonic invasion of New York City, X-Factor and the X-Men fought against a super-powered and insane Madelyne. The invasion was thwarted after Madelyne perished in combat with Jean.

Later, the mutant warlord named Apocalypse infected baby Nathan with a techno-organic virus. To save his son's life, Scott had to allow a member of the Clan Askani to transport Nathan two millennia into the future, where it had been foreseen that he would deliver the world from Apocalypse’s clutches. X-Factor disbanded soon after, and its members returned to the ranks of the X-Men. Scott and his long-time love Jean were married, and whilst on their honeymoon their spirits were taken into the timestream by the Clan Askani’s matriarch. Arriving in the future, they inhabited new bodies and raised Nathan for twelve years. When they returned to their own time and bodies, Nathan remained in the future and ultimately matured into his time's greatest hero: Cable.

Not long after returning to the team, Scott and Jean soon found themselves embroiled in Apocalypse's bid for cosmic power by assembling "The Twelve" - a group of mutants who would determine the fate of their kind that included Scott, Jean, and Cable. They were wired to a machine that would channel their awesome energies into Apocalypse, allowing him to absorb the body of the time-tossed powerful mutant teenager known as X-Man. As his teammates fell around him, a powerless Scott saved X-Man and merged with the would-be conqueror to create a new evil entity. Jean detected Scott's psyche inside Apocalypse and prevented the X-Men from destroying him, however he was presumed dead by most of his teammates. Only Jean and Cable refused to believe Scott had perished.

Investigating rumors he was alive, the pair found him in the birthplace of Apocalypse in Akkaba, Egypt, struggling to reassert his mind over the villain's psyche. Ultimately, Jean was able to physically rip Apocalypse's essence from Scott's body using her mental powers, and Cable destroyed it with his own powers.

Scott left for a small period of recuperation, during which he met and reconciled with his father. Afterwards, Scott returned to the X-Men, but his association with Apocalypse had given him a grimmer, more serious personality than ever before. As a result, many of his relationships became strained, including his marriage to Jean. Scott sought the counsel of his teammate Emma Frost and the pair began a psychic affair. When Jean discovered Scott's betrayal, he left the X-Men in order to sort out the mess his life had become.

Following the outing of Professor X as a mutant to the world, his school was rechristened the Xavier Institute of Higher Learning and opened its doors to the mutant population at large, training and educating dozens of young new students to help them cope with their burgeoning abilities. After the death of his wife, Scott assumed the position of co-headmaster of the School alongside his new love, Emma.

Deciding that the X-Men needed to play a more proactive role in emergency rescue and aid, and thus garner attention on mutants in a more positive light where mutant abilities are used for the good of people, Cyclops handpicked a team in order to get out into the world more. Scott chose Beast for his intelligence, Emma for her telepathy in the field, Wolverine because of his fighting experience, and Shadowcat as the public face of mutants. The remaining teams, Scott left in the charge of Havok and Storm. The teams' first mission was an alien, named Ord of the Breakworld, during which the team rescued the recently resurrected Colossus and destroyed a cure for mutants.

Not long after, the X-Men's Danger Room became sentient, attacking the X-Men and seeking to kill Prof. Xavier. Calling itself "Danger", "she" revealed that Prof. Xavier knew she had been self-aware, since the Shi'ar technology was installed in the Danger Room years ago, but chose to ignore her, effectively, inhumanely using her only to train his teams of X-Men. After her defeat on the island of Genosha, the X-Men abandoned Prof. Xavier on the island in disgust, and Cyclops stated that he no longer needed Prof. Xavier's input at the school or with the team. Shortly after returning to the school, Scott and the rest of the X-Men were teleported away by S.W.O.R.D. to combat Ord on the Breakworld.

School’s Out / High School Never Ends

Scott and the rest of the X-Men return to Xavier’s school to find that the reserve members of the X-Men (Nightcrawler and Angel) were put into a temporal coma by a group called the Travelers. A group of seniors at the school took over and ultimately defeated the Travelers. Scott reveals that the Board of Trustees of Xavier’s school had secretly built a new west coast school, Academy X. Considering the relative success the seniors had in running Xavier’s school, Scott offers them the chance to run Academy X.

Welcome to Paradise / Hotel California

Storm joins the X-Men just before the team’s next mission: an extradimensional trip through a “ghost box” to fight a group intent on invading the X-Men’s reality (“Ghost Boxes”).

My Generation / Children’s Crusade

Scott and the X-Men travel to Africa to deal with a mysterious mutagen that is causing mutations among newborn children. They find that this, too, is linked to ghost boxes (“Xenogenesis”).

Valley of Lost Souls / Empire of the Damned

After a falling-out with Academy X over their decision not to allow Bobby (“Iceman”) to reclaim half of his mutant powers from the artificially created mutant girl, Agape, Scott helps fight Selene during the Necrosha event. During the battle, Nightcrawler and Iceman face Selene, and Nightcrawler is killed. Many at Xavier’s school blame Academy X staff for Kurt’s death.

Powers and Abilities

Optic Blasts: Cyclops has the power to emit beams of energy from his eyes described as an "optic blast." The beams have the appearance of red light (i.e., electromagnetic radiation in a red wavelength); however, they do not give off heat and instead deliver concussive force without recoil. The beams are tremendously powerful and can be used to rupture steel plates and pulverize rock.

Spatial Awareness: Cyclops seems to possess an uncanny sense of geometry, in this sense used to describe his observation of objects around himself and the angles found between surfaces of these objects. Cyclops has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to cause his optic blasts to ricochet and/or reflect off those objects in a trajectory to his liking.

Expert Pilot: Cyclops is an expert pilot of fixed-wing aircraft, a skill he appears to have inherited from his father. It has also been implied that his geometric sense improves his abilities in the air.

Master Tactician and Strategist: Cyclops has spent most of his superhero career as the leader of either the X-Men or X-Factor and has developed exceptional leadership skills. According to Nick Fury's files, Scott's abilities are at their best in tense situations. Fury notes that the less time Cyclops has to think about a decision, the better that decision is.

Expert Combatant: Cyclops also has extensive training in martial arts and unarmed combat, holding black belts in judo and aikido.